ACE CEO Brian Duperreault has called on Bermuda to safeguard its reputation as a business jurisdiction and slammed the Island's policy of letting in companies that set up shell headquarters simply for the purpose of saving taxes.

The long-time insurance chief said the Island had earned its stripes as an international business jurisdiction and had every right to expect a return from its corporate citizen.

Mr. Duperreault made his comments in an address to Hamilton Rotarians yesterday and added that Bermuda should not settle for the minimal contributions made by companies that set up shell headquarters - a process now commonly referred to as a “corporate inversion” - but should seek to be improved by those companies allowed to set up here.

Mr. Duperreault, who is Bermudian, said in addition to his making a public statement on the matter, he had personally made his views known to Government.

The debate over US companies moving their headquarters to offshore jurisdictions including Bermuda while leaving the bulk of their operations on American soil has grown more and more heated over the course of the year. In recent weeks both the US House and Senate have moved to enact legislation that if passed could bar offshore companies - and which could include Bermuda corporations - from contracts with the proposed Homeland Security Department which could comprise 22 federal departments.

The controversy has focused on Bermuda after a number of high-profile companies, including Ingersoll-Rand and Stanley Works, said they were considering the move to Bermuda to cut millions off their US taxes .

Mr. Duperreault said little could be done about the companies that had already relocated their headquarters to the Island but that Bermuda should take a hard look at its policy going forward.

“We should look at our standards and raise them. It would not be fair to change rules after the fact but it is an appropriate time to take a look at what is good for Bermuda,” he said.

Although conceding that Bermuda companies could be affected if proposed legislation in the US aimed at cracking down on American corporations that move offshore were passed into law, he said the Island's focus at this time should be to look inwards with the intent of protecting Bermuda's reputation: “We should take pride in what Bermuda has done as a country and look at ourselves and take care of our own business first.”

He said the matter was “our community issue” and that he, as a member of that community, was making a suggestion on how the matter might be dealt with.

Mr. Duperreault said that regardless of how the US dealt with the companies that moved offshore, Bermuda should be looking at what contributions would be made by corporations that set up on the Island, from job creation to charitable and social contributions.

He said: “I am not talking about the US but talking about what Bermuda should do. Our first line of defence should be that Bermuda has to maintain its reputation. We are one of the greatest jurisdictions and we have a great reputation on a world scale but we have to maintain that reputation as a place of honour and integrity. If we do that, our place will be secure,” he said.

Speaking of his own company, Mr. Duperreault said “ACE has been here for 17 years and we take our role as a corporate citizen very seriously.

“We know we have a responsibility to contribute to the well being of the Island and its people. Companies who invert their headquarters to Bermuda should be required to do so, too.”

Mr. Duperreault concluded that Bermuda had earned its stellar reputation as a business domicile and had become the centre of the insurance world today jurisdiction.

But he added that that must be safeguarded: “The Island has earned the right and has the responsibility to be even more vigilant and demanding of the companies who want to join this community.

“We need to make sure that Bermuda becomes an even more attractive place to do business, that standards are raised even higher and that ultimately, every Bermudian benefits as a result,” he said.

As the debate over corporate inversions has grown, the Bermuda Government has said little on its stance. A Finance Ministry contingent did however make a trip to Washington D.C. in May of this year to meet with legislators and other key people on the matter.

In an address to the House after that trip, Finance Minister Eugene Cox said the matter was one for the US Government to deal with. He said: “Government wishes to make it clear that it considers the issue of corporate relocations to be a matter for resolution by the US authorities.”

Mr. Cox added: “Our discussions in Washington were intended to provide factual information on the nature and extent of our taxation system and the rigour of our company incorporation process.”

Yesterday however the former chairman of the Bermuda Monetary Authority and former Financial Secretary Mansfield James Brock spoke up in response to Mr. Duperreault's comments and called for wider representation from the Island's business community, to Government, on the matter of corporate inversions.